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At least two Delt brothers passed on to the Chapter Eternal in the World Trade Center attack. It is also important to remember that, although this is the first incident of its kind on US soil, it is not the first time Americans have been vicitimized -- as noted in the article below:
Students remember greek Pan Am victims
By Meghan Lantier
The letters are passed to a new brother each year. What normally reflect camaraderie and brotherhood, at this time symbolize condolence and loss.
They are the letters of Stephen Boland, a Delta Tau Delta brother and victim of the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Boland and 34 other Syracuse University students died Dec. 21 of that year when the plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 200 people on board and another 11 on the ground. Of those on the flight, 11 were greek.
Dan Borgasano, current Delta Tau Delta president, will honor Boland this Remembrance Week, as done each year, by selecting one outstanding new brother to bear the letters. The chapter will also visit the university's memorial to the victims, offering words and prayers.
"It's definitely important to keep his memory alive," said Borgasano, a senior advertising major. "By bringing the new members to the memorial, it helps them understand how important it is."
"It's probably the most serious thing we have."
SU's annual Remembrance Week -- beginning Oct. 19 in honor of the 35 victims from the university -- has a heightened significance after last month's terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and the nation's capital.
"It affects everyone now more," said Michelle Zimmerman, an Alpha Epsilon Phi sister and one of two greek recipients of SU's Remembrance Scholarship. The scholarship is given to 35 students each year. "Before, it was hard to put Pan Am into perspective. People at SU knew that some students died, but now the focus is broader."
No Delta Delta Delta sisters were aboard Pan Am 103, but in the past four years a sister from the chapter has received the Remembrance Scholarship, said Sharon Ehm, a Delta Delta Delta sister and Remembrance Scholar. The sisters who have received the award have brought awareness of the event to the chapter, she said.
"Bringing awareness to the campus and to my organization is a goal for me and other remembrance scholars," Ehm, a senior public relations and policy studies major, said. "The students on Pan Am 103 were students just like you and me. It could have been any of us on that plane. Having a sister recognized each year has made us aware of that."
Along with Boland, Steven Berrell of Phi Delta Tau, Gary Colasanti of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alexander Lowenstein of Zeta Psi, Cynthia Smith of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Karen Hunt, Julianne Kelly and Alexia Tsairis of Pi Beta Phi perished in the bombing. Phi Delta Tau is no longer on the SU campus and Sigma Alpha Epsilon refused to comment for this story.
Colleen Brunner of Alpha Sigma Chi at Oswego State University, John Flynn of Kappa Delta Rho at Colgate University and Thomas Schultz of Ohio Wesleyan University also died.
"A large part of what SU and the greek community lost was that these people were so young and brilliant," said Bryan Legaspi, a Sigma Phi Epsilon alumnus and fellow scholarship recipient. "At the point they died, they were all just starting out."
Both Zimmerman and Legaspi are encouraging the greek community to honor the victims by participating in Remembrance Week events. But Zimmerman said she wondered if the chapters even know greeks were lost in the tragedy.
The Remembrance scholars are encouraging greeks to create a memorial of some kind in the name of the victims, said Legaspi, a senior international relations, Spanish and economics major. By greeks doing this and supporting such events as the Remembrance Convocation and the rose laying ceremony, it would show "how strong the greek bond is and how it transcends time," he said.
Scholars are required to wear pins during Remembrance Week, showing a victim's picture. Legaspi requested that his button show one of the greeks. He is also relying on service fraternities, such as Alpha Phi Omega, to support the week's mission. The chapter plans to tie ribbons around trees and conduct presentations in the Schine Student Center to inform students of the 1988 bombing.
Many students only hear of the tragedy when they arrive in Syracuse, said Zimmerman, a senior policy studies and public relations major.
Said Legaspi, "We can't forget about these people."
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